Defining Adult Play and Its Role

In this episode of The Radical Therapist, Chris sits down with developmental psychologist, social therapist, and longtime cultural provocateur Lois Holzman to explore what a developmentalist approach to mental health offers in a time when therapy often collapses growth into diagnosis, insight, or symptom management.

Drawing from her latest book A Developmentalist’s Guide to Better Mental Health, Lois introduces listeners to a playful, philosophical, and deeply relational way of thinking about human problems, one that shifts the focus from fixing individuals to creating conditions for ongoing social and emotional development. Through the book’s unique letters-and-responses format, she invites readers (and therapists) to step out of psychology-speak and into a more performative, improvisational relationship with their lives and dilemmas.

Together, Chris and Lois explore how Vygotsky’s legacy and social therapeutics challenge dominant therapeutic models, why play and performance are not luxuries but necessities for adult development, and what distinguishes a developmentalist response from advice-giving or problem-solving. They also reflect on how people can begin to move when they feel most stuck, not by changing their stories, but by changing how they relate, act, and create with others.